What do you think of the "Bible codes" written about by Yacov Rambsel? I know that equi-distant lettering is not really a way of interpreting the Bible, but it does seem to have some kind of divine inspiration. I have a couple of books by Yacov Rambsel on the subject, and I don't think that he is trying to re-interpret the Bible nor predict the future. From what I know, the Bible codes only give some kind of indication that only God could have written the Bible. There are more books on the Bible code subject that appear to be less Biblical.
You come up with some interesting questions. I have not read anything by Yacov Rambsel or by anyone else on the topic of Bible codes. You can call me unintellectual, but my ignorance on the subject has been self-imposed. You have said two things which I consider contradictory:
1. "I know that equi-distant lettering is not really a way of interpreting the Bible..."
2. "From what I know, the Bible codes only give some kind of indication that only God could have written the Bible."
If Bible codes can truly be trusted to give an indication of the Bible's inspiration, then they would have to be a valid way of interpreting the Bible because God would have placed them there. By the same logic, if you believe that they are not a valid way of interpreting the Bible, then God must not have inspired them, and if that is so, someone else did. If that is the case, you do not want to submit yourself to be taught by that someone else.
It would not be reasonable of me to expound further without reading the books you refer to. If you send one to me, I am willing to evaluate it and report my findings. Meanwhile, I caution you that it is atypical of God to imbed secrets in the Bible which must be discovered without the help of Biblical principals taught in the same Bible. To my knowledge, nowhere in the Bible does God suggest that the the actual Hebrew letters of Scripture have meaning, and I know of no Biblical principle which would support that premise. Consider also, that the practice of focusing on word patterns and numbers is one aspect of Kabalah which we consider to be occult for other reasons.
If anyone else wants to comment, you are welcome.
Stephen
I believe you've answered a question I've had regarding these
"codes". That is, they are considered "occult". While I have thought
some of the things "discovered" to be embedded in bible passages by number
codes, etc. to be thought provoking...and even sometimes somewhat amazing, my sense is to
completely agree, that to find anything "hidden" or embedded without using what
is literally written must be a step in the scripture twisting direction, and therefore
Satanically inspired. Even though some seemingly profound things may be found thereby, I
suspect that you could find "proof" for just about any assertion using these
methods.... therefore undoubtedly dangerous to be fooling around with.
Pastor Mike
I am not willing to say they are occult without first reading the books. At this point, I am simply suggesting caution.
Rosie
Ok let me clarify what I meant by they are not really a way of interpreting the Bible. That is, they are not prose, they (as far as I know) don't even have complete sentences so we can't go and say that they are giving us new teaching or anything like that. The nature of these codes are words, names, sometimes names and dates together, things like that. The codes that have been "discovered" supposedly point to Yeshua, that is they are His Name encoded in chapters like Isaiah 53, for example. Also codes have been discovered that supposedly are names and dates of historical events, such as assassinations. The codes can't be interpreted in the same way that we interpret the rest of the Bible if they are only one word, or two words, etc. The real question is if they are real or not. I am not familiar with the part of the occult concerning numerology, so I will try to find out more about that. But if that is true, then what do you make of people saying that seven is God's perfect number? I have always thought that that was superstitious but what do the Scriptures say?
Pastor Mike
I have reviewed two books about "Bible codes" written by Yacov Rambsel (Yeshua: The Name of Jesus Revealed In The Old Testament and His Name Is Jesus: The Mysterious Yeshua Codes), and feel I am now in a better position to comment. In his "Yeshua" book, Rambsel begins chapter 1 as follows:
"In Genesis, B'raisheet, the first verse, we see Yeshua as Creator of all things. 'In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.' In the very first word, b'raisheet, starting with the first yod, counting every 521st letter, spells Yeshua yahkol, which means, Yeshua is able (to have power). In the Hebrew each letter has a numerical value. The numerical value (gematria) of the Hebrew word, gift, tribute; eshkar, has the same gematria as the 521-letter count where we discovered the name of Yeshua."
First of all, it is not clear to me exactly what Rambsel is attempting to say. What is clear is that his methodology heavily employs gematria, a practice which has been closely associated with the mystical (and many believe occult) Jewish study known as Kabbalah. To demonstrate the similarity, I quote from two pages of Gershom G. Scholem's book Major Trends In Jewish Mysticism, Schocken Books, (New York: 1941):
Page 100: "Here and elsewhere in the literature of the Hasidim, prominence is given for the first time to certain techniques of mystical speculation which are popularly supposed to represent the heart and core of Kabbalism, such as Gematria, i.e. the calculation of the numerical value of Hebrew words and the search for connections with other words or phrases of equal value..."
Page 135: "But the mystic will not stop here. He differentiates further between matter and form of the letters in order to approach closer to their spiritual nucleus; he immerses himself in the combinations of the pure forms of the letters, which now, being purely spiritual forms, impress themselves upon his soul. He endeavours to comprehend the connections between words and names formed by the Kabbalistic methods of exegesis. The numerical value of words, gematria, is here of particular importance."
If we believe that the very words of Scripture are inspired by God, then it is not impossible that God could build into them, a code with prophetic implications to validate their authorship. If God did this, the fact that mystics first discovered it, would not render it less true. On the other hand, I am exceedingly reluctant to subject my mind to any methodology which is mainly promoted by practicianers of the occult. I want to be clear. I am not saying that Rambsel's work is occult or that he is in biblical error. What I am saying is that his methods are worrysome, and since I have faith in the authorship of the Scriptures, I have no need to be impressed by whatever Rambsel's investigations may produce. I will therefore not continue to read his books on this subject.